Using Artificial Intelligence to Write Books

 

Should writers utilize artificial intelligence tools to write books?

I’ve been hearing a lot about artificial intelligence (AI) and creative writing, so as a fiction writer, I decided to check out one of the more popular AI applications called ChatGPT that some of my writer friends recommended.

I’ve never used artificial intelligence while writing any of my 65 books, so I was skeptical about this new technology, thinking that a computer could never write a story as well as a human could, but I decided to go into the research with an open mind.

I was surprised by what I discovered. More on that in a bit.

First off, I want to explain how I used ChatGPT to generate fiction:

I brought up Chrome and in the search line I typed “chat.openai.com” and up came a page for ChatGPT. It prompted me to create a free account, so I answered a few basic questions and got logged in.

On the bottom of the webpage, there is a “send a message box” where you can pose all sorts of scenarios for stories and get some interesting responses. For my search, I typed in the message box, “Write me a story about” and then added the basic plot of one of my books, “Torn Between Two Lovers: A Civil War Romance”, which is about a wounded Yankee soldier and the Southern Belle who rescues him. My book is already published on Amazon, but I wanted to see what the chatbot would come up with. It came up with a two-page version of my 253-page novel.

After reading the AI generated version, I was surprised and impressed—not to mention a bit humbled because although AI’s version was only two pages, it was very well-written in some ways better than what I’d come up with.

I thought of more requests I could type in the “send a message box” and wrote, “Write me a title for a book that’s about a wounded Yankee soldier and the Southern Belle who rescues him.” After seeing the AI suggested title "Love's Redemption: A Union Soldier's Heart in Southern Arms", I had to admit that I liked my title better.

“This is fun,” I thought, so I wrote some more requests in the “send a message” box. I told it to write an outline for my book and then once again I wrote a short version of my book’s plot. ChatGPT came up with a nice outline that looked a bit like a script showing “Act 1”, “Act 2,” etc. and ending with an “Epilogue.”

ChatGPT can come up with themes for your story if you provide some basic information. All you have to do is type in the send a message box, “Write me some themes for…” and then describe your book’s plot.

I wrote a bittersweet love story and got the idea to change it into a romantic comedy with the chatbot’s help. So, in the send a message box I typed “Write me a story” and then described my idea for a new plot line. I was pleased by the results. The bot came up with several paragraphs of the new version from the beginning of the story all the way to the ending. It was a whole new take on my story, and it made me reconsider what I had written in my bittersweet love story. Maybe someday I’ll rewrite my sad story and change it into a Happily Ever After Romance.

I fiddled around some more and thought about the next request I could write in the send a message box; so, I asked myself, “What if I was writing a new story and hadn’t finished fleshing out the main character’s traits.” So, I typed in the send a message box, “Write me a description of” and then added a short description of my characters. It came up with a few paragraphs of very detailed character traits that I could focus on as I wrote my novel.

All in all, I was very impressed with the dialogue it generated for my stories; basically, the dialogue was well-written and sounded natural although I’ve heard some people complain that the dialogue it comes up with sounds stilted.

I thought some more about different scenarios for stories I might like to write and wondered would the chatbot would come up with, so in the send a message box I wrote, “Write me a story about a love triangle,” and it came up with two pages of a reasonably good story entitled “Entangled Hearts”.

If you have Bing on your computer or phone, it has an AI feature that writers can utilize while writing stories. On the top of Bing’s home page, there is a box that says “Search the Web”. On the right side of the box, you can click on the “Open Bing Chat” box. Then, click on “Choose a conversation”. After that, click on the box for “Style” and choose “More Creative.” There, you can pose prompts such as “Write me a story about…” All you need to do ahead of time is come up with a basic plot line. With Bing Chat, you don’t have to create an account since you’re already using Bing as a search engine anyway. It’s scary how simple it is.

Some of the metaphors in the AI-generated stories sounded trite and some were so bad that they made me giggle. I felt smug, thinking, “Aha! I’d never put it that way in any of my stories.”

Will AI-generated books replace those written by humans in the future? I don’t think so. Fiction writers can think of using Chat GPT and Bing’s chat features as starting points, never the final products. As every student learns in Creative Writing and English Literature classes, quality writers draw from several sources—either their own feelings and experiences, books they’ve read, people they’ve known, places they’ve lived, or dialogue they’ve heard. That kind of creativity can never be replaced by a computer.

Mystery Writers' Genres

Attention Mystery Writers: What sub-genres of mysteries does your book fall under?
The mystery genre has developed many sub-genres over the years. Correctly labeling your mystery will determine how discoverable it will be on Amazon.com and other book channels where your books are available.  Here are 13 of the most common sub-genres:

Cozy: When the rich uncle is found poisoned, the kindly lady from across the heath skips her afternoon tea to discover which of the family members committed the dastardly deed.

The cozy, typified by Agatha Christie, contains a bloodless crime and a victim who won't be missed. The solution can be determined using emotional (Miss Marple) or logical (Poirot) reasoning. The Malice Domestic convention celebrates this tradition and produces an annual anthology.

Amateur Sleuth: Even though his business partner's death is declared a suicide, Frank can't shake the feeling that his partner was killed to sabotage the defense contract.

The amateur sleuth tries to solve the murder of someone close. Either the police have tried and failed or misread the murder as an accident/suicide. Both the loss and need for a solution is personal. These are usually single-shot stories and novels since lightning rarely strikes the same person again and again (outside of a television series). [Editor's Note: This is changing, however, and there are a large number of amateur sleuths who are normally engaged in such businesses as selling tea or making quilts, but who manage to stumble across dead bodies on a regular basis.]

Professional Sleuth: Although Swiss banks were world-renowned for discretion and secrecy, Hans knew he needed to explain the dead body in the vault before Monday morning.

The professional sleuth is an amateur sleuth in a professional setting, preferably a setting which is unique and intriguing. Not only is inside information used, but solving the crime returns order to a cloistered environment. Think Dick Frances and the world of horse racing.

Police Procedural: As Lieutenant Dickerman watched the new guy blow too much dust across the glass table top, he reached for the antacids in his pocket. The killer had struck four times now and Dickerman had to depend on clowns fresh out of the academy to gather evidence.

The police procedural emphasizes factual police operations. Law enforcement is a team effort where department politics often plays a large role. If you plan to write one of these, you need to spend time with police officers and research the tiny details which will make your story ring true. Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels describe the workings of a fictional big-city department.

Legal/Medical: The defense lawyer knew that the surgeon was going to be a difficult expert witness.

Lawyers and doctors make effective protagonists since they seem to exist on a plane far above the rest of us. Although popular, these tales are usually penned by actual lawyers and doctors due to the demands of the information presented. To find latest legal/medical mystery look no farther than the bestseller list.

Suspense: Despite the fact Greg hadn't seen the killer flee the scene of the crime, the two attempts on his life convinced him the killer believed otherwise.

Instead of the sleuth pursuing the criminal, in suspense the protagonist is the one being pursued. Here the question is not so much "Who done it?" but "How will the main character stay alive?" These thrillers are often blockbusters.

Romantic Suspense: Despite the fact Vanessa hadn't seen the killer flee the scene of the crime, the two attempts on her life made her wonder if she shouldn't have said anything to Richard.

Add a hefty dose of romance to a suspense and produce a romantic suspense. Not only does justice prevail, but love conquers all. The spectrum runs from Mary Higgins Clark to mystery lines from the paperback romance publishers.

Historical: When Sam Adams turned the Boston Massacre into a call for revolution, he neglected to mention that one of the men killed was shot not by the British but by someone firing from a second story window.

Move your mystery into the past, near or far, and you've entered the realm of the historical mystery. Crime has always been in fashion and the possibilities are limited only by your imagination and ability to research. The Historial Mystery Appreciation Society can be found at http://www.mysterynet.com/organizations/#appreciation [Editor's Note: Another interesting resource on historical mysteries is Crime Thru Time, at http://www.crimethrutime.com/.]

Mixed Genre: As if it wasn't bad enough that a clone had terminated a robot, Inspector Ji suspected the killing had been ordered by the Velusian ambassador.

Move your mystery into the future and you've entered the realm of the mixed-genre mystery. Although mixed-genre isn't confined to SF, science fiction is a healthy market which welcomes the marriage. Isaac Asimov's ROBOT series is one example of a future police detective.

Private Eye: He fingered the retainer in his pocket, tried to remind himself that the client was always right. It didn't wash. She thought she could buy him but he wasn't for sale.

The Private Eye is as much an American icon as the Western gunslinger. From the hardboiled PIs of the 30s and 40s to the politically correct investigators of today, this sub-genre is known for protagonists with a strong code of honor. While Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder is an unofficial PI, Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone is licensed.

Noir: He fingered the check in his pocket. He knew it would bounce, but so had Mac when he hit the pavement from seven stories up.

While much PI is Noir, Noir also covers stories from the other side of the fence. Noir is a mood: gritty, bleak, and unforgiving. The usual brutality is about as far from Cozy as you can get. Plug "noir" into your favorite search engine to find a wealth of sites offering original and reprinted fiction.

Crime: They had thirty seconds to cut the alarm. Best time during drills had been fifteen. Now, twenty seconds after opening the faceplate, Allison slipped and dropped the pliers inside the wall.

Suspense in the crime story comes from wondering whether the plan will work. We're rooting for the bad guys because they are smart, organized, and daring. The ride will be a bumpy one. This sub-genre works well in film. Consider renting The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, Entrapment, or The Thomas Crowne Affaire.

Caper: The gun had been loaded when he left the house this morning so why wouldn't it shoot now? Gus cursed as he throttled the lump of metal and then glared down the barrel.

A caper is a comic crime story. Instead of suave and calculating, the caper chronicles the efforts of the lovable bungler who either thinks big or ridiculously small. Finally, we get to laugh.

Pitching Your Book

Okay, you’ve just written the great American novel and can’t wait to release it to the world; then watch those royalties come streaming in.  You’ve asked a friend to proof-read it and give you constructive criticism.  He thinks your book is really good.  You may have even forked over $100.00 to a professional who designed a mind-blowing cover. Who wouldn’t want to buy a book with a cover like that? you ask yourself.

Stop.  Take a deep breath.  There’s one more make-or-break job you have to do: write a book description.  That’s not as easy as it sounds, especially with publishers like Smashwords who limit the short description to only 400 characters.  You may have a great long description, but you are going have to start deleting parts of it to fit into the short one.  It can be very frustrating.  I've seen some short descriptions where part of the last sentence is cut off.  Obviously, the writer didn't double-check it before publication.

Here are some suggestions to consider:

1. Don’t use subplots:  Keep to the main point and don’t confuse your readers: they probably don’t want to take the time to read a long description anyway.  Ask yourself, “What is the primary action that drives my book?”
2. Make it concise.  A creative writing teacher once told me that a poem is more difficult to write than a short story or novel because with a poem, every single word must be packed with meaning.
3. Keep it under 150 words.
4. Write in the third person, present tense.  Imagine sitting face-to-face with your reader and they’ve asked you what your book is about.
5. Write it as if you are the publisher—not the writer. Remember—the book description is a marketing tool—it's not literature; so it’s okay to hyperbolize a little.  Just don’t overdo it.
6. Read book descriptions by other authors in your genre.

Last, but not least:  Use Emotional Power Words.  Make your readers wake up and take notice.   How?

1. Use words that will raise their spirits and make them feel better.  Examples: miracle, triumph, jaw dropping.
2. Sex sells.  Take advantage of this by using words such as: sensual, thrilling, naughty, steamy, brazen.
3. Make it forbidden by using these words: Pandora’s Box, confidential, cover-up, bootleg, Black Market.
4. Fear is a powerful motivator, especially if you write murder mysteries.  Use words like: looming, revenge, frantic, searing.
5. Fan the flames.  Make them feel outraged at injustice. Use words such as sick and tired, back-stabbing, ruthless.
6. Feed Their greed: most people either want to make or save money. Use these power words to take advantage of this: bargain, profit, discount, quadruple.
7. Make them feel safe.  Use these words: no risk, privacy, official, tested, guaranteed

Try using only six to ten of these emotional power words in your description. And last, but not least, here’s the most important factor to keep in mind when you are writing your description: make sure that your book lives up to your promises.  You don’t want your reader to feel cheated.  Make sure you deliver what your advertise, or your reader may want his money back; and even worse, may feel compelled to write a bad review or give a one-star rating.  And that’s the last thing we writers want.  Happy editing and good luck with your amazing new novel.

Writing Fiction About True Events

I live in Orange County, California and there is always a ready supply of current events to draw upon when writing my mysteries.  As a couple of examples: I knew a young woman who lived across the street from me who was later murdered by "The Bedroom Basher".  I also knew a teenage hood who liked to hang around with me who later turned into the notorious "Hammer-Murderer." Both of these characters show up in my writing (with their names changed, of course).

Murder at the Abbey: A Detective Santy Mystery takes place in Orange County and draws upon current events.  St. Michael's Abbey--where the priest in the book is murdered--is embroiled in a running battle with environmentalists and anti-development groups because the abbey has just purchased land to expand their facilities and environmentalists believe that if the abbey's plans go through, it will threaten the habitat of a endangered toad.  The Catholic Church got into further hot water when it purchased the famous "Crystal Cathedral" and removed some commemorative stones that donors had earlier purchased for their loved ones, with the reassurance from the former pastor that they'd always be there.  With so many people mad at the abbey and the church, it's easy to imagine that some unhinged person might resort to murder--perfect fodder for a mystery writer.

Murder at the Abbey: A Detective Santy Mystery

by Louise Hathaway

Only $2.99 at Amazon, iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Kobo, and Smashwords.

Available in paperback at Amazon.

Here are the direct links for the book at each of the retailers:

Purchase at Amazon

Purchase at iTunes

Purchase at Barnes and Noble

Purchase at Kobo

Purchase at Google Play

Purchase at Smashwords

Punctuation Can Be Fun

Many times when I’ve told people that I was an English Major, I am answered by a groan and someone saying, “I hated that class in school.”  Why?  They often answer, “Too much memorization of stupid rules.”  I’d like to stick up for those “stupid rules”: I think that they are important because misuse of punctuation marks can lead to confusion; and isn’t writing ultimately about communicating, not confusing?  Here’s the best description of the importance of these rules: “Punctuation marks are the traffic signals of language: they tell us to slow down, take notice, or stop.”  This quote is taken from Lynne Truss’s book, “Eats, Shoots and Leaves.”   She provides several funny examples of misused punctuation.  Consider her title.  It was taken from a sentence she read that was presumably was about the eating habits of pandas; but the way it’s written, it makes you think that the panda had a gun: he ate his food, shot his gun, and then walked away.  Obviously, that’s not what the writer intended and there shouldn’t be a comma in his description.  Frank McCourt, the noted writer and humorist, said that Lynne Truss should be nominated for sainthood; and he should know about the need for rules about punctuation: he taught English and most likely saw several examples of bad writing over the years.

Here’s a funny example from her book about the misuse of apostrophes: she had seen a sign about a large play area for kids that said: “Giant Kid’s Playground.”  Would you want your child playing with the kid of a giant?  I sure wouldn’t.

Do you overuse exclamation points in your writing?  Truss quotes F. Scott Fitzgerald’s description of them.  He says, “An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own joke.”  She says that they are “like a big attention-deficit brother who gets over-excited, breaks things, and laughs too loudly.”  This is definitely something we should keep in mind in our writing.  I do not want to over-use them.

I write books with my husband and he’s asked me for help in knowing where he should use commas.  I tell him to imagine saying a sentence aloud, and whenever you pause, you probably will need a comma or some other punctuation mark.  Like Lynne Truss says, “they tell us when to slow down.”

Have you ever wondered where to use a colon in your writing?  Here’s her rule: “they deliver the goods that have been invoiced by the preceding words.”  I use colons a lot in my writing and I love this rule. Here’s an example of the correct way to use a colon: in “The Hound of Baskerville”, Sherlock Holmes says, “This much is clear Watson: it was the baying of an enormous hound.”  The writer should imagine saying a delighted and satisfying, “Yes”, where the colon comes.  Colons are nearly always preceded by a complete sentence and are used to precede lists.  When should you use semi-colons?  They are used to combine two related complete sentences when there is no conjunction (and, or, nor, but).

I wonder if someday soon, because of text messaging and Twitter, things like good grammar, spelling, and punctuation will be seen as a dying art; like using a fountain pen and going to the post office to buy commemorative stamps to mail your correspondence and cards.  In my own fiction writing, I use a lot of sentence fragments because I think they make the paragraph more dramatic; so, there is a time and place to bend the rules; but I liked to think that when I read articles from Time Magazine or Smithsonian, the writers will continue to use sentences that deliver the goods and tell me when to slow down, take notice, or stop.  I have to admit, though, that misuse of punctuation marks can lead to some hilarious and unintended meanings which are always fun to catch.

Marketing Your Book

Okay, you’ve just written the great American novel and can’t wait to release it to the world; then watch those royalties come streaming in.  You’ve asked a friend to proof-read it and give you constructive criticism.  He thinks your book is really good.  You may have even forked over $100.00 to a professional who designed a mind-blowing cover. Who wouldn’t want to buy a book with a cover like that? you ask yourself.

Stop.  Take a deep breath.  There’s one more make-or-break job you have to do: write a book description.  That’s not as easy as it sounds, especially with publishers like Smashwords who limit the short description to only 400 characters.  You may have a great long description, but you are going have to start deleting parts of it to fit into the short one.  It can be very frustrating.  I've seen some short descriptions where part of the last sentence is cut off.  Obviously, the writer didn't double-check it before publication. 

Here are some suggestions to consider:

1.     Don’t use subplots:  Keep to the main point and don’t confuse your readers: they probably don’t want to take the time to read a long description anyway.  Ask yourself, “What is the primary action that drives my book?”

2.     Make it concise.  A creative writing teacher once told me that a poem is more difficult to write than a short story or novel because with a poem, every single word must be packed with meaning.

3.     Keep it under 150 words.

4.     Write in the third person, present tense.  Imagine sitting face-to-face with your reader and they’ve asked you what your book is about.

5.     Write it as if you are the publisher—not the writer. Remember—the book description is a marketing tool—it's not literature; so it’s okay to hyperbolize a little.  Just don’t overdo it.

6.     Read book descriptions by other authors in your genre.

Last, but not least:  Use Emotional Power Words.  Make your readers wake up and take notice.   How?

1.     Use words that will raise their spirits and make them feel better.  Examples: miracle, triumph, jawdropping.

2.     Sex sells.  Take advantage of this by using words such as: sensual, thrilling, naughty, steamy, brazen.

3.     Make it forbidden by using these words: Pandora’s Box, confidential, cover-up, bootleg, Black Market.

4.     Fear is a powerful motivator, especially if you write murder mysteries.  Use words like: looming, revenge, frantic, searing.

5.     Fan the Flames.  Make them feel outraged at injustice. Use words such as sick and tired, back-stabbing, ruthless.

6.     Feed Their Greed: most people either want to make or save money. Use these power words to take advantage of this: bargain, profit, discount, quadruple.

7.     Make them feel safe.  Use these words: no risk, privacy, official, tested, guaranteed

Try using only six to ten of these emotional power words in your description. And last, but not least, here’s the most important factor to keep in mind when you are writing your description: make sure that your book lives up to your promises.  You don’t want your reader to feel cheated.  Make sure you deliver what your advertise, or your reader may want his money back; and even worse, may feel compelled to write a bad review or give a one-star rating.  And that’s the last thing we writers want.  Happy editing and good luck with your amazing new novel.